I'm a self-employed web designer & photographer since 1998. But that's all business and this blog is all about my crafty hobbies! Throughout this blog you will find things like watercolor painting, paper crafting, stamping, card-making, copics, my own hand drawn digital stamps, beading, cooking, gardening, photography, photoshop, the antics of my 4 legged children, Emma & Francie!

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Copyright:All images and articles are Copyright Tiffany Richards. If you would like to use one personally, just email me. If you would like to use one commercially, please visit my business site at TiffanyRichards.com for my Terms and Conditions.

FAQ: This blog is just for fun. I am a self-employeed web designer and photographer, please visit TiffanyRichards.com for inquiries. Around the garden I use a small point and shoot Canon. I also use a Canon D40 with a wide variety of lenses, lighting and accessories. I'm addicted to Lightroom, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I have a 17" Dell XPS m1710 and 3 other Dell laptops. A Dell 24" monitor. 2 Epson printers, one of which is a wide format. HP scanner. Three external hard drives at 600gig each. Any Questions?
Okay, now, my crafting supplies include: Cricut Expression & 5 cartridges, Slice & 6 cartridges, Sizzix Big Kick, Bunches of Nestibilities and cuttlebug emobossing folders, 2 Xyron sticker makers, Tonic paper cutter, 279 copic markers, 100's of papers, stamps, punches, ribbons, embellishments, glitter, embossing powders, and too much more to mention! Feel free to ask me any questions about anything you've seen on my blog!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Make digital stamps (line art) from your own photographs! This is my first try at making a tutorial. I hope ya'll get some use out of it! Let me know!! =) I used one of my own images! =)

For this tutorial I'm using Photoshop CS3, but this lesson should work with most any version b/c it uses basic tools and filters. (I'm not sure about Photoshop Elements b/c I've never used it) This tutorial can work on most any type of photo, depending on what type of digital image you want to achieve. You can either isolate an object from a photo (like below) or, use the entire photo as a "scene" for a digital stamp image.

1. Let's start by isolating your object from the background of the image. Use your pen tool to create a new work path and select your object.

If you need help using the pen tool do a google search for a pen tutorial. Depending on your image there are other ways of selecting your object; such as selecting by color range. I find it easier to zoom in really close to select your image with the pen tool. Use your space bar to pan around the image as needed. Depending on the detail of your image this step could take a while, but will be worth it in the end! Here you can see my selection path!

2. After you have selected your object (by connecting the last dot to the first dot!) Then Save Your Selection as a New Path by dragging your "new path" on the palette down to the "create new path" icon at the bottom of your Path palette. It will name itself Path 1.

3. Next, Convert Your Path to a Selection by clicking the dotted circle icon at the bottom of your palette.

4. Then go back to your layers palette and hit "cmd/ctrl J" to duplicate your selection.

Name this layer "flower". (1)

Then create a new layer below the flower layer and fill with white. (2)

5. Now, you need to desaturate your image, that means remove all the color. At the bottom of your layers palette click the New Adjustment Layer icon (the half full moon). Click "Hue/Saturation" and slide the Saturation slider all the way to the left. This will make your image look black and white.

6. Your image may seem rather flat, so lets Add Another Adjustment Layer with levels to increase the contrast. Selects "Levels".

On the levels dialogue box the left black slider represents your shadows. The right white slider are your highlights. The middle grey is for your midtones.

I moved my shadows closer in to where the shadow information starts on the scale. I did the same with the highlights moving to the left.

Look at your own image and decide what looks best.

This will make better end results with the boost in contrast.

7. Let's put this new grayscale image on it's own new layer.

Hold Cmd/Ctrl and hit your flower layer and that will automatically select what you have on that layer.

Then do a Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + C and copy merge everything that is selected.

Then do a Cmd/Ctrl + V and paste and it will automatically paste onto a new layer. Be sure it is above all other layers.

You can name this new layer: "gray flower" or whatever you would like!! Your Layer palettes should look something like this:

Okay, lets start making this thing look like a stamp!! Now the real fun begins!

8. While you are still on the "gray flower" layer apply the "Smart Blur" filter.

Filter>Blur>Smart Blur

Set the Quality to High and the Mode to Edge Only.

These are the settings I used (above). You adjust your settings to fit your own image. Watch your image as you move the sliders.

Looking cool, huh? Now let's invert the image!

9. While still on the "gray flower" layer go to Image>Adjustments>Invert

OMG TIFFANY! YOU ROCK!! I even took web design and don;t have this down! Thank you! I love your blog. Now follow'n, please hop on over and follow along withme too! WOuld love it! HUGS AND THANK YOU!!!Rach ~ Queen La Rubba

I know I am a little late on this, but I love this tutorial- you did a great job explaining how to turn a photo into a digital stamp- I love it when people are able to take their passions and intertwine them! Way to go!

I just love this blog, as a fellow stamper and photographer, I really enjoyed your PS tutorial. I will definitely try the digital stamp images. I love PS, I'm always finding new things to learn with it.

Thanks so much Tiffany! I had found a tut on turning a photo into a line art but it didn't extract part of the image like you did. I am so glad that I just found your blog! I was looking for sunflower digital stamp images and yours was in the search. What about adding the stem and leaves? Would you draw around them together with the flower or do them separate? I'm a digi newbie and am going to look at the rest of your blog bc you are awesome with the details and it REALLY helps!

Many blessings! Deborah/JoyfullyOrangehttp://joyfullyorangepapercrafts.blogspot.com

Hi Tiffany, I got your comment on my blog, my email is orangeinheaven@gmail.com. The one other thing I really need to know is how to add styles, actions and such into my program to use them! I use Gimp but should be able to use most PS tutorials or instructions (from what I've seen so far anyway). Thanks for the help!!